Starred Up

Warper

Anyone seen this? It looks good in the trailer, must check it out

e_e

Saw it yesterday. It's a very authentic, well acted, harrowing and gripping prison film. Would recommend.

johnny_ultimate

A very impressive little film - mostly manages to balance its raw portrayal of prison life with an interesting 'father/son' narrative. It's pretty critical of the prison system and the way it works, and is unflinching in the way it shows the relationships between the characters. Some parts, especially near the end, maybe seem a little too neat and contrived, and some of the characterisation is a little lazy (the 'horrible warden' must have graduated to full on archetype by now!). But they're minor concern as it's never less than brutally compelling. I thankfully have no way of gauging its accuracy, but certainly feels like a more credible and realistic representation of prison life than the multitude of past works that have tackled the topic - the grime, grim procedure and constant tension creating a pretty startling sense of place.

Looper007

saw it today, reminded me a lot of Scum from Alan Clarke, brilliant performances from Jack O'Connell (reminds me of a younger version of Tom Hardy's Bronson) and Ben Mendelsohn as his father, great chemistry between the two . I also agree with Johnny that the head warden bad guy thing was the only contrived part of the film would have been far more interesting just dealing with the prisoners. Some scenes had me chuckle

the ball biting and the officer named Johnson, the group sessions where nice break from the grim prison scenes

. The ending was a nice touch and O' Connell really looks like he could be the next big thing from the U.K.

ScummyMan

Saw it yesterday, acting is absolutely superb. Well worth a watch.

Warper

Ben Mendelsohn is a great actor though everytime i see him i just see Po from Animal Kingdom, which was one of the best characters of the past 10 years imo. O'Connell gives a great performance here though i felt his character is a bit OTT especially in the first half of the film. That said, good solid film and worth a look.

Fysh

I really enjoyed this, thought it was a great study of characters trapped in a cycle teaching them that violence and aggression are the only responses to their environment. Great performances across the board; even the thinly-sketched "evil warden" character was at least more subtle than many such Horrible Screw characters. Jack O'Connell was great, but I thought Rupert Friend's performance was on a par - a lot of consideration went into the subtlety of body language involved, ensuring that assertiveness never crossed over into agression.

I thought the dialogue was very good, in particular the way that it provided some welcome humour for the characters and lighter moments to offseat the strange combination of tension and mundane boredom that appear to characterise day-to-day life in prison.

Warper

Was the black guy in group the same guy from the Lucozade ads?

Banjaxed82

Warper wrote: »

Was the black guy in group the same guy from the Lucozade ads?

He was. I couldn't get it out of my head. And another from the group looked like ex Tottenham defender Ledley King. He's retired from football now, so maybe it was him.

O'Connell looks like a young Paul Bettany. Look-a-like overload last night.

great Film

Looper007

Fysh wrote: »

I really enjoyed this, thought it was a great study of characters trapped in a cycle teaching them that violence and aggression are the only responses to their environment. Great performances across the board; even the thinly-sketched "evil warden" character was at least more subtle than many such Horrible Screw characters. Jack O'Connell was great, but I thought Rupert Friend's performance was on a par - a lot of consideration went into the subtlety of body language involved, ensuring that assertiveness never crossed over into agression.

I thought the dialogue was very good, in particular the way that it provided some welcome humour for the characters and lighter moments to offseat the strange combination of tension and mundane boredom that appear to characterise day-to-day life in prison.

Friend was very underrated, loved the darkness his character had underneath the calmness. The scene in the bathroom between him and dodgy prison head was one of the more intense scenes. The scenes in the group sessions were very funny.

LuckyLloyd

I was completely gripped right up until

the warden bursts into the counselling session and essentially breaks it up for good

. Up to that point the film is brilliant. Gritty, unpredicatable and so very tense. The acting in the group sessions is tremendous - the viewer can cut the tension with a knife.

As it is, the ending is ever more contrived but overall it doesn't take away from a great effort overall. Anyone who enjoyed the first hour of Un prophète needs to go and see this.

Tipsy McSwagger

Watched this a couple of nights ago and really enjoyed it. You can't beat a small independent film like this to restore your faith in moviemaking after all the big budget dross. It's not as good as the brilliant A Prophet but then again few prison films are.

Liam McPoyle

Watched this today. Decent movie, very well acted. Wasn't gone on the ending but meh, worth a watch.

groom

Warper wrote: »

Was the black guy in group the same guy from the Lucozade ads?

Just watched starred up. Was wondering. Always comes back to Boards ☺